In the late autumn of 1977, on the grain drying field of the Qinghe Production Brigade, 18-year-old Lin Chunmai heard a life-changing broadcast - the college entrance examination had resumed.
This farm girl who grew up in a ravine relied on a few old textbooks she secretly borrowed to survive night after night under an oil lamp. She has a pair of skillful hands that can make meat from wild vegetables and cut clothes from coarse cloth; she is ambitious and is not willing to marry and have children like the girls in the village, spending her whole life around the pot.
At the same time, in a military camp thousands of miles away, Lu Zhansheng, the 25-year-old son of the military commander, was facing a life decision. This tough guy who joined the army at the age of sixteen and worked his way up from the ranks of the scouts had great military exploits but never relied on his family background. When the news came that the college entrance examination would be resumed, his comrades rushed to sign up, but he stood still - he had his own plans.
One is studying hard under the lamp in the mountain village, and the other is planning in front of the sand table in the military camp. Two parallel lines that never seem to intersect, their fates have been entangled since then because of an unexpected encounter and an admission notice.
The difference in family status, the separation between urban and rural areas, and the wave of the times embrace everyone. When peasant girls enter the university gates, and when the children of high-ranking cadres take off their military uniforms, demobilize and return to their hometowns, can they cross the seemingly insurmountable gap?
This is a story about choice and perseverance, and it is also the epitome of youth of a generation.
